Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Nature's Bakery Fig Bars Review

Their mission is simple: to deliver quality all-natural snack foods that everyone can enjoy and benefit from. Nature's Bakery believes in keeping things simple and seeking balance in life between nature, activity and nutrition.

Whether you are an extreme athlete or a weekend warrior, a mom on a power walk or a kid on the go, Nature's Bakery delicious, nutritious, well-balanced snack foods are made with you in mind. Nature's Bakery caters to many different people, ages, fitness levels and lifestyles by keeping it simple: all natural ingredients, great taste, balanced nutrition and plenty of energy for life's journeys.

I was happy that Nature's Bakery provided me with samples of their Fig Bars few weeks ago. I received their stone ground whole wheat Fig Bars in Apple Cinnamon, Peach Apricot, Raspberry, Original Fig, and Blueberry flavors. I also received their Vanilla Raspberry and Vanilla Fig bars that are not whole wheat, but at least they are made with unbleached pastry flour instead of regular bleached white flour.

I first tried their whole wheat Peach & Apricot Fig Bar and I was very impressed and pleased! I felt as if I was eating a whole wheat muffin with peach & apricot jam.

All of their Whole Wheat Fig Bars have several things in common. They are all like sweet, fluffy pillows filled with fruit goodness. Their fig base gives their fillings a little crunch that is combined with the distinctive flavors of other fruits, or doubled in the original Fig Bar. The whole wheat dough is very hearty, moist, robust, soft, yet dense enough to hold together well. The bars are not greasy, mushy, or overly sweet. The flavors are well balanced and I like the fact that they have around 110 calories a piece. Each package has two Fig Bars, so around 220 calories total. Not bad for a wholesome, delicious and filling snack! Each bar smells and tastes accordingly to its filling, nothing fake or artificial about it. Each flavor has a hint of fig, but you can clearly taste the other fruits as well.

The Apple Cinnamon smells and tastes almost like an apple strudel with a nice caramel-like sweetness. The whole wheat Fig Bars taste more like little desserts to me so I have been enjoying them with tea in the evenings and at work. I also like them as a pre-run fuel. When I eat one about an hour before my long run, or a difficult workout session, I have enough slow burning energy to get me though my run or workout. I don't feel sluggish after eating these bars which used to happen to me when I ate other grain and fruit based snacks or energy bars. My favorite flavor is the Whole Wheat Peach & Apricot.

The Vanilla Raspberry Fig Bar and the Vanilla Fig Bar are quite different than the Whole Wheat Fig Bars. They are not very moist or hearty and they don't hold together as well. However, the Vanilla Raspberry smells and tastes almost like my favorite Christmas Linzer cookies with raspberry jam filling! The dough is beautifully buttery and cookie-like in my opinion. The Vanilla Fig tastes like a shortbread cookie with fig jam. Very nice!

4 comments:

I have never heard of these fig bars before and I LOVE anything with figs in them! Addicted I tell you. And anything that tastes like a Linzer cookie is perfect in my book ;) Must find where they sell these in my area. Thanks for the review!

BTW. Just saw your recipe in the VT Sept issue. Lookiing forward to making it :)

About Me

I am a Czech Vegan living in America. I am working on my first vegan cookbook. On this blog I share my recipes, my thoughts on vegan living, vegan products reviews and other fun things. Two of my recipes were published in the Vegetarian Times magazine, as winning recipes in their recipe contests (November/December 2010 issue and September 2012 issue) and another recipe was published by Eating Well in the cookbook EatingWell Fast & Flavorful Meatless Meals: 150 Healthy Recipes Everyone Will Love (2011), and Eating Well magazine (August 2012 issue).
I love cooking and baking, running, and I enjoy veganizing Czech and American recipes. I am an animal rescuer, chocoholic and a tea lover.
I would like to mention that some of the products that I talk about on my blog were generously given to me with no obligation to write a positive review. If you make vegan products and want them to be featured and reviewed on my blog, let me know. You can email me at czechvegan (at) yahoo.com. My old email address czech.vegan (at) yahoo.com was compromised so I can no longer access it.